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CLE Urban Winery brings the unique concept of a working winery and tasting room to the historic urban setting of the Cedar-Lee neighborhood of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. We don’t have a vineyard – our wines are hand-crafted and bottled on-site in our craft brewery-style winery and are made from premium grapes sourced primarily from the US west coast and branded to honor and celebrate the city of Cleveland.
CLE Urban Winery offers our customers a chic, convenient, comfortable environment to taste and appreciate wine made in Cleveland, by Clevelanders. Our passion is to share our knowledge and love of wine with our customers and to offer them a unique experience unlike any other in Ohio. We share our love of wine through our unique wine tasting experience, wine-related events, wine education and appreciation programs, clubs, classes, and other offerings. We’ll change your mind about Ohio wine!
There are “wine bars” around the city, and a growing number of traditional farm vineyards and wineries predominantly located out in the Ohio countryside. We’re different – the CLE Urban Winery concept is not only unique because we produce a wide variety of high quality, hand-crafted wines within the Cleveland metro area, but also because all our wines are named to celebrate and honor the city we love.
Handcrafted wine – right in your neighborhood! The term “urban winery” doesn’t just refer to a working winery in an urban space. The new concepts of urban winemaking, similar to the growing trend of microbreweries for craft beer, have been emerging across the country. We seek to embed our urban winemaking concepts into the greater cultural fabric of the city of Cleveland, bringing the customer closer to the winemaking experience close to home and integrating enjoyment and appreciation of wine into the fabric of the community in a more meaningful and personal way than a traditional wine bar or retail wine store.
Our winery and signature Tasting Bar is located in a 100-year old former auto repair garage in the Cedar-Lee neighborhood which we have turned into an urban winemaking oasis! We run our Tasting Room like a community center that makes wine - come hang out with us!
Our wine production area is located behind glass across from the Tasting Bar and is designed and built so that our winery operations are performed in full view of our customers. We recently expanded the footprint of our wine production and bonded storage areas to almost double in size, and added space for more barrel aging of our wines. You can now see the whole winery from the storefront window on Lee Road!
There are ample seating areas in the 3,000 square foot Tasting Room. The rear section of the winery is an open space that can be configured in a number of ways to accommodate parties, events, receptions, and fundraisers. We don’t have a patio, but our front and rear seating areas feature a roll-up garage door to let the outside when the weather is nice!
Our hand-crafted wines are high quality, approachable and affordable. With the wide variety of wines we produce – white, red, fruit-infused and dessert, plus our award-winning wine slushie – we offer something for everyone, available right in the neighborhood in a casual, hip and fun environment.
We are Clevelanders – and all of our wine varieties at CLE Urban Winery honor and celebrate Cleveland and its neighborhoods, districts, traditions, and landmarks. Cleveland rocks!
Another of the core tenets of our business is to actively support and participate in community service and charitable fundraising causes with and for the people who live in the city we love. We seek to create community through wine!
I am a native Clevelander (born and raised in Euclid), and I recently moved back home after more than 30 years to be near family and to live my dream of opening an urban winery here in my beloved hometown. I’m a retired U.S. Navy officer (I served for 20 years on active duty), and I then spent more than 13 years as a business development executive in the defense industry in the Washington DC area. I am also a former volunteer firefighter/EMT, and I have great love and respect for first responders and for all those who serve our country and communities in uniform.
Wine has always been a great passion of mine – I have lived and traveled all around the world throughout my adult life, studying and enjoying wine and food. I have advanced degrees in Business and professional experience in all aspects of business development, marketing and management, and have also pursued formal and informal training and professional development opportunities in the wine industry. All of my experience and education – combined with my passion for wine and for my wonderful hometown – has culminated in my decision to open and run my own winery in the metropolitan Cleveland area and provide the ‘wine companion” to all the great craft beer and spirits made here! So – let’s have fun, celebrate, connect, support charitable causes and drink some great wine together at CLE Urban Winery!
I am originally from the Cleveland area, however, I have not always called Cleveland home. My affinity for wine led me to the Napa Valley in 2003 to pursue a winemaking education. After several vintages spent learning my craft, I returned to Northeast Ohio and began making wine in the Grand River Valley. Over the years I have consulted for many of Ohio’s top wineries.
When I learned of an urban winery coming to my hometown of Cleveland Heights, I felt compelled to make a contribution to the project. The vision for the winery is one that emphasizes community outreach through wine accessibility, and a commitment to educate and enable all levels of wine enthusiasts.
I look forward to interacting with all my fellow Oenophiles in the Greater Cleveland area!
